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GOD REVEALS HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS TO DRAW NEAR HIS PEOPLE BY A MEDIATOREXODUS 33:7-23INTRODUCTION I’d like to ask you to imagine with me a fictitious situation that I know would never happen in any of the families in this room. Any similarity to actual events and persons is only coincidental. Imagine that you had a teenage son who told you that he was going to spend the evening at his good friend’s house watching a movie and playing video games. He had done this on many other occasions and so you gave permission for him to do so. Let’s say that the parents of your son’s friend were also your friends and you called them that night about going out to dinner next weekend. In the course of your conversation you happened to ask how your son was behaving. There was a pause at the other end of the phone and your friend asked, “What do you mean? Your son isn’t here. In fact, my son isn't here. He said he was going to your house. Aren't they there?” You both quickly realize that your sons have lied to both of you and are up to no good. You arrange a search party to go find them. After an hour or two of calling friends and driving around town you discover the two boys at the home of one of their high school teachers. They’ve thrown toilet paper all over the teacher’s trees and have wrapped cellophane around one of her cars. After requiring the boys to knock on the door and apologize to the teacher and promise to come back the next day to clean up their mess, retrieves his son and drives him home in silence. At home, your son, with his head hung low tells you that he is very sorry for what he did and asks you to please forgive him. You respond by sending him to his bedroom while saying to him, “I want you to go to your room while your mother and I decide what to do with you.” In a small way, the situation in our imaginary home with a sorrowful son sitting in his bedroom waiting to find out what his mom and dad are going to do with him illustrates the situation between God and Israel in Exodus 33:5-6. God called Israel his firstborn son back in chapter 4. God made Israel his son not because of anything they did but as an expression of his free grace. As parents care for children, so the Lord cared for Israel, delivering his son out of slavery and causing the Egyptians to give him their silver and gold. He provided Israel with food and water in the desert and protected Israel from his enemies. Then he entered into an agreement with Israel, telling his son about his wonderful inheritance and asking his son to obey him. Israel agreed and promised to obey his father, the God of all creation. But, while Moses was getting the Ten Commandments up on Mt. Sinai and the instructions for building the tabernacle, his son, the people of Israel rebelled against his specific command and made a calf of gold and worshipped it with offerings and in song. In spite of God’s overwhelming kindness to Israel and in spite of his overwhelming power on display before their eyes on Mt. Sinai, they used the gifts God gave them to make a false god and to bow down in worship to it. God’s first reaction was the reaction of justice. He was furious and determined to give to Israel exactly what Israel deserved, which was immediate, permanent death. However, through the intercession of Moses, God promised not to destroy Israel and eventually he promised to send an angel to go with them to the Land of Promise. However, in vv. 3 & 5 of this chapter he also told them that he would not go with them because if he did he knew he would end up killing them because they loved to sin and he loves justice, to give people what they deserve. When the people hear that God will not go with them, they mourn and repent of what they did. It is at this point that God tells them that they are to wait in their room, actually, their tents, while he decides what to do with them. Just as the son saying he is sorry does not obligate the parents to act as if nothing happened, so Israel’s sorrow does not obligate God to act as though they had not worshipped the calf and so simply restore the covenant. We saw last week that Moses is not content with God merely promising he will not immediately wipe out Israel. What we discover today is that neither is he content to merely have God send an angel to lead Israel safely through the desert and into the land of Canaan. He wants God to be with his people. He wants the full covenant, which Israel shattered by their disobedience, to be restored. Last week he first attempted to gain the restoration of the covenant by offering to die in place of Israel. God rejected that offer because Moses is not blameless and he has no legal authority to make such an arrangement, therefore he cannot die in place of Israel. Israel is powerless to change God’s mind. God, due to his perfect justice, cannot simply ignore what Israel has done. What we see today is how Moses successfully intercedes for Israel. As we’ve already seen in these chapters, Moses is a “stand in” for Jesus. Philip Ryken, in his commentary on Exodus uses a helpful illustration so we can understand that what happens here with Moses is really about Jesus. “Think of Moses as the extra who stands in for the star during the filming of a movie. While the stagehands are setting the scene and adjusting the lights, the extra stands right where the star will stand when the filming starts, so that when the star finally takes the stage, everything will be just right. While all this is going on, onlookers can get some idea what the scene will look like, but they don’t know the full story. The star is still somewhere back stage. He won’t step in until the last moment, and only then will the scene be played properly.” In watching Moses restore the shattered covenant we are witnessing how Jesus Christ brings sinful humans near to God, into a new covenant relationship with God. MAIN POINT Jesus Christ is the only one who can bring God near to sinful humans because… I. Only he can speak to the Father face to face (vv. 7-11) Do you ever feel towards God like the son in my illustration or like these Israelites are feeling at the end of v. 6? I know I often feel this way. God has been so kind to me. I have a great wife and wonderful children and grandchildren. I live in a beautiful home and have good friends. I live in a stable democracy. I’m basically healthy and able to do what I want. I belong to a great church and have God’s word and a mind to understand it. I have tons of books and magazines to help me to understand the gospel. God has been so kind to me and yet I often ignore him. I’m proud and defensive when people challenge me. I don’t love people as I ought. I don’t pray enough. I get more excited about going hunting than I do about coming to church. I’m regularly sad about my sin and worried about what God is going to do with me. I can see no reason in me for why God should pay any attention to me. I regularly feel how powerless I am to do anything that would secure God’s love and presence and acceptance, just like Israel. Israel was powerless, like me, but Moses wasn’t powerless. After he comes down from the mountain and his failed attempt to atone for the sins of Israel and delivers the bad news that God was not going with them, he took a tent and set it up a long way from the camp of Israel. He called the tent he set up, the “Tent of Meeting.” Immediately, when we see Moses setting up a tent and calling it the Tent of Meeting to which “those who seek God” go, we ought to think of the real “Tent of Meeting” that just a few chapters earlier God described to Moses while he was on Mt. Sinai. In thinking of that tent we should immediately recognize that this tent is vastly different from the tabernacle, which has not yet been built, but only described. The tabernacle is a glorious, beautiful tent made out of the most expensive of material. Gold thread is woven through the material of that tent. It has partitions in it and the Ark of the Covenant, covered with gold, containing the Ten Commandments, with the atonement seat on top of it at the center of that tent. This is just a plain old tent with nothing in it. The big difference however, is that the real Tent of Meeting will be placed in the center of the camp of Israel but this tent is pitched by Moses a long way away from the camp. In addition, while this tent can be approached by “all who seek God”, yet only Moses and his young aide, Joshua can actually enter it. There are no priests and no outer courtyard with its altar of burnt offering and all the sacrifices to atone for sin. Finally, the pillar of cloud that is the visible manifestation of the glory of God is inside the tabernacle whereas here it descends outside the tabernacle and remains at the entrance. In other words, this tent is a poor substitute for that glorious tent that makes it possible for God to live in Israel. The reason this tent is so much less than the other tent and so far away from the camp of Israel is because of Israel’s sin and God’s “indecision” about what he is going to do with Israel. Their sin has made a separation between them and God. So why does Moses set up this tent? The reason is so that he can talk with God face to face, as a man talks with his friend. Moses and God meet in this tent and the topic of conversation is what God is going to do with Israel. It is in this tent that the fate of repentant Israel will be settled. In a moment we will examine this conversation, but right now I want you to notice what Israel does when Moses goes out to the Tent of Meeting. When Moses leaves the camp, the people all stop whatever they are doing and they stand at the entrance to their tents and fix their gaze upon Moses as he makes his way to the tent and enters it. As soon as Moses enters the tent the pillar of cloud descends and stands at the entrance to the tent of meeting. Then, all these Israelites who are standing at the entrance of their tents bow with their faces to the ground in worship. This is an incredibly pitiful sight. These sad, sinful people, powerless to do anything to gain God's favor, look in hope upon their mediator Moses. They know that their success depends entirely upon his success. They know that only Moses can gain what they desire, the presence of God with them as they go to the Land of Canaan and his presence with them in the Land of Canaan. So they fix their eyes on Moses and they humble themselves before God confessing their sins and declaring his worth. They do not demand God answer. They wait in hopeful expectation for Moses to persuade God to come back into the camp. I know that there are many of us who often wonder if God will accept us, if he will come to dwell with us. I cannot give you any more sound advice if you are in that condition of uncertainty than to do what you see the entire nation of Israel doing. Repent of your sins. Be sad that your sins separate you from God. Then fix your eyes on Jesus. Watch him as he goes each day, every day into God’s tent and talks with his Father as a man talks with his friend, face to face. Then bow low before God. Acknowledge his greatness and goodness and give thanks to him. Pin all of your hopes on Jesus, the only one who can intercede for you face to face with God. Hebrews 7:24-25 says, “but because Jesus lives forever he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him because he always lives to intercede for them.” Romans 8:34 says that Jesus is right now seated at God’s right hand and is also interceding for us. Our success with God depends entirely upon Jesus’ success with God. Jesus, unlike Moses, has a permanent priesthood and unlike Moses he is a perfect high priest, a perfect sacrifice, a perfect and obedient man. Jesus wants his sinful people to live with God and God to live with his sinful, powerless people and so Jesus, ever since his ascension has been asking God to be with us. Is it possible that Jesus will fail to obtain what he asks for? I don’t think so. Think about Jesus, the Righteous One who gave himself as the satisfaction for your sins, living right now in God’s presence and asking God to not leave you behind. Depend upon what he is doing for you, not what you are doing, depend upon his sincerity, his prayers, not your sincerity or your prayers and in this way you will find assurance that God is indeed with you. Jesus Christ is the only one who can bring God near to sinful humans because…
II. Only he pleases God (vv. 12-17) The scene now switches to what is happening inside the tent while the pillar of cloud stands guard at the door of the tent and the people bow in worship at the doors of their tents. What is happening is that Moses is pleading with God for the nation Israel. He wants God to go with Israel. This is his passionate plea; an intense, emotional plea from Moses to God. We are getting to see the love of Christ for us, every believing sinner. Like we will see here, Jesus is not praying that God will keep away all disease and danger, all financial calamity. Jesus is asking the Father to be with us, to give himself to us. He is asking his father to not leave us behind. I want us to follow through the argument that Moses makes to God for Israel. First, notice that he quotes God three times in his opening petition. EXTRA: This is not exactly on the point but I can’t help but point out to you, if you want to improve your praying, improve your knowledge of God’s word and then use it in your prayers. The older I get the more convinced I am that prayer is not me asking God to do what I want him to do but it is me asking God to do what he has said he wants to do. Using God’s word in prayer is the surest way I know to pray for the things that God wants to give. The first thing Moses wants to know is who is going with him to the Land of Promise. The NIV doesn’t translate it but the first word is an emphatic “see”! Here is what Moses is saying to God, “Now see here God, you’ve told me to take these people to the Land of Canaan and yet you haven’t given me personal knowledge of the one whom you are going to send along with me. I know you’ve said an angel will go with me but I’m not interested in any old angel. You say that I have found favor in your eyes and that you know me by name. Well if that is true then make me know your ways so that I can know you, not some angel. It is only if I know you that I will know that I have found favor in your eyes. Having an angel for a guide doesn’t prove anything. You are what I need and you need to come with me so I can lead your people. An angel will not do.” Then Moses finishes this request by reminding God again, “This nation is your people.” Why does Moses say this at the end? The reason is because Moses is not interested in God’s presence for just himself but for his people. He is not merely asking God to go with him and not with Israel. He wants God to go with him for the sake of Israel. In v. 14 God responds to Moses’ request by telling him, “My Presence will go with you and I will give you rest.” On first reading this sounds pretty good, like God is giving Moses what he has asked for. If it were not for that last clause in v. 13 it would be exactly what Moses asked for. God is promising Moses that he will be with him and that he will save Moses personally. The "you" is singular. To give rest is another way of describing God’s saving work. God let’s Moses know that he is going to do exactly what Moses has asked. He will be with Moses and cause Moses to know his ways so that he may know God forever. In essence what God is saying is that he will continue to meet with Moses in this “Tent of Meeting” way outside the camp as Moses leads the people to Canaan. However, this is not what Moses wants. Immediately he moves from using the pronoun “I” to the pronoun “us.” “God if your Presence does not go with us, not just me, then don’t send us up from here. I want you to dwell in the midst of Israel in the real “Tent of Meeting”, not just meet with me in this old tent outside the camp. How will we or anyone else know that you have been gracious to us if you do not dwell among us? How in the world will anyone know that we are your people if you do not go with us? It is only your presence with us that will distinguish us from all the other nations. What nation can claim to have the creator of the universe living in a tent in their midst? This is the only way we can survive and bear witness to your greatness, so you must go with us, in our midst. I want you to do what you said you would do when I was with you on the mountain, before they worshipped the calf.” In v. 17, God tells Moses that he will do what Moses asks. In other words, God is going to restore the shattered covenant. He is going to fully pardon Israel and take them back as his people and come live among them in the true Tent of Meeting. But what I want you to see is why God is going to do this. Literally what God says is this: I will do what you ask “because you found favor in my eyes and because I know you by name.” God is going to restore the covenant with Israel because he is pleased with Moses. He is not going to enter into a relationship with Israel because of Israel but because of Moses. Out of his regard for and love for and knowledge of Moses God will agree to come live with Israel. He will be their God and reveal his glory to them for the sake of Moses. At the inauguration of Jesus' ministry, after being baptized by John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus in the form of a dove and then a voice out of heaven spoke and said, "This is the Son whom I love, with him I am pleased." Later, in Matthew 12:18, following a description of Jesus' healing ministry Matthew quotes a passage from Isaiah, applying it to Jesus, "Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I am pleased…" Then on the mountain where Jesus is transfigured in the presence of Peter, James & John, again God speaks from heaven saying, "This is my Son whom I love, with him I am pleased." It is very important to note at this point that God uses two different words when describing his pleasure in Moses and in Jesus. In the case of Moses God says "you have found favor (or grace) in my eyes." God never says about Jesus that he has found favor or grace, but simply that he is pleased with Jesus. What this tells us is that God is not pleased with Moses because of Moses and his obedience. God chooses to be pleased with Moses by grace, not because Moses merits his pleasure or because he is pleasing in himself. In the case of Jesus, the Father is pleased with the Son because, according to Hebrews 10, the Son does his will. The Son is pleasing in himself, by his obedient submission to the Father. It is because the Father is pleased with the Son that, according to 1 Corinthians 1:21 he is pleased to save all who believe in Jesus. God is happy with all who trust in Jesus because he is happy with Jesus. We are loved by God and rewarded with the presence of God by his Spirit now and one day face to face in heaven because God is pleased with his obedient Son. This is the ground of all joy and confidence and contentment. God is with me and always will be because he is eternally happy with his obedient Son. Jesus Christ is the only one who can bring God near to sinful humans because…
III. Only he shares in the glory of God (vv. 18-23) Verses 18-23 are often used by Christian commentators to show how the greatest passion of every believing heart is to have a personal encounter with God. While that is a true statement, yet that is not the point of these verses. When Moses asks God to show him his glory, he is not suddenly forgetting about the nation Israel and his role as a mediator and only thinking about some personal, private revelation from God. Rather, he is asking God for some visible, tangible token that he intends to do what he has just said. He is asking for the seal to be placed on the covenant that will guarantee that God will not abandon his people again, no matter what happens. Moses has already seen the glory of God, as has all Israel. The glory of Yahweh has been seen in the pillar of cloud that leads Israel, his glory has been seen in the provision of manna each morning, his glory has been seen as a consuming fire in the cloud on the top of Mt. Sinai, and even now, while Moses asks to be shown his glory, the glory of Yahweh is right outside the tent in the pillar of cloud. Obviously, Moses is asking for something more immediate and direct than these visible manifestations of the invisible glory of God. This is confirmed when God tells him that he will make all his goodness pass before him and proclaim his name to him but he cannot see God's face. In other words, Moses is asking for a direct revelation of God's very being as confirmation that God is pleased with Moses and thus will always accept Israel for his sake. The idea here is like when two nations are negotiating a treaty. During the negotiations the representatives of the king or president do all the negotiating but when the deal is finished and ready to be signed, then the heads of state show up. The evidence that the treaty is truly in force is shown when the actual leaders of the nations show up. Moses asks God to personally show up and sign the treaty, not simply manifest his presence in a cloud. But God cannot reveal his actual glory, his face, to any man because no mere human could survive such an encounter. Moses is just a man and therefore he cannot live in the actual presence of God. This is not a treaty between equals. What is it then that God says he will do? He describes what he will do in two statements separated by a statement about what he will not do. First, he will make all his goodness pass in front of Moses and he will proclaim his name, Yahweh to him. In the proclamation of his name is embedded this foundational reality: Yahweh will have favor or grace on whom he decides to have favor and he will have compassion on whom he decides to have compassion. What is the goodness of God? The goodness of God is the name of God, his nature, and character. What is the essence of his nature? He is a God of grace and compassion. He does not merely deal with sinful humans in his justice, which he has every right to do. But he deals with sinful, powerless humans by grace. And God's grace and compassion is free grace and free compassion. It is determined by his own will and purpose, not according to anything that human beings do or don't do. This is Romans 9:16, one of the most hopeful verses in the entire Bible, "It does not, then, depend upon man's desire or effort but on God's mercy." Salvation is not dependent on me and my effort but on God's determination to be kind to me for the sake of Christ. What is the seal God gives to Moses that he will do what he has said, he will be with Israel? It is the solidity of his own gracious character. He will fulfill his promise to be with Israel because his decision to be kind to Israel is not based on Israel but on his own character and purpose. Notice the second way God describes what he is going to do. He tells Moses that there is a place near him where he will make Moses to stand on the rock. Then when his glory passes by he will hide him in the cleft in the rock until he has passed by and then he will remove his hand and permit Moses to see his back. While there is a literal rock and a literal cleft that Moses will encounter on Mt. Sinai, as we will see next week, yet there is no way that this language is not also intended by God metaphorically. Some 40 years after this event, just before Moses dies, he writes a song that is recorded in Deuteronomy 32. In that song Moses calls Yahweh, "the Rock" seven times. Moses is not destroyed by the glory of God because he is standing on Yahweh, he is hidden in Yahweh. Here is the ultimate ground of security for the people of God and the ultimate evidence of God's commitment to be with his people: he protects his people from himself by hiding them in himself. "My soul finds rest in God alone. My salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my refuge…" In Moses' inability to see the true glory of God we are shown that he is only a "stand in" for the one who is to come. The apostle John uses the inability of Moses to see God's face as the point of contrast to show that Jesus is the fulfillment of all that this event points toward. Listen to John's words in the opening chapter of his gospel: "The Word (that is the eternal Son of God, second member of the Trinity who is God and who is with God) became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth… For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God (not even Moses), but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known." Jesus has beheld the fullness of the glory of God, in fact he himself is the fullness of the glory of God (He who has seen me, has seen the Father, John 14:9 & "The Son is the radiance of God's glory, the exact representation of his being," Heb. 1:3). He is the pledge and guarantee that God will do what he has promised. He, unlike Moses, did not and will not perish as he lives in the unveiled glory of God and so we can be sure that he is able to represent us before the Father. He is the rock upon which we stand and the cleft in the rock where we are hidden from the consuming fire. He has "sealed the deal" by his own glorious presence. Jesus Christ is the only one who can bring God near to sinful humans because…
© Copyright 2006 John Swanson.
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